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Internet date girl still missing

Police are increasingly fearful for safety of Net girl
Written by Wendy McAuliffe, Contributor

Police are increasingly fearful for safety of Net girl

Police are continuing their search for a 16-year-old schoolgirl who is believed to have disappeared with a man that she met through an Internet chatroom.

Kelly Marie Reid left her home in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, last Thursday. Police fear the teenager is with 20-year-old Robert Percy, a supermarket worker from Exeter, who she met online last October.

Detective Inspector Keith Bowman of South Wales police is particularly worried that the pair had met over the Internet. "It looks like she has gone with him willingly but it doesn't mean she wants to stay," he said. "Meeting over the Internet means you don't really know who you are dealing with."

Percy and the girl had only communicated twice before online. He visited her on the day that she went missing, and she is believed to have left home with a rucksack of clothes and around £100 in cash. Percy has not been seen at work or by his family since the meeting, but the police are refusing to say whether there are any suspicious circumstances behind her disappearance.

The couple are believed to be in the south east of England travelling in a blue-black Rover car.

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